"Some issues that are important to the patient get ignored," she says. "If they have problems in some areas they just aren't taken as seriously and don't get treated as comprehensively."
Proceeding under the assumption that women's depression is more likely to be centered on dependency issues could lead a therapist to question a patient about relationships with her spouse and children when the problem may lie somewhere else, she explains. By the same token, Spangler says, a male patient might be asked excessive questions about his job and career performance when he might be concerned about friendships.
Such popular notions not grounded in fact extend outside the treatment of depression, Spangler says.
"I'm from Venus and you're from Mars and we're aliens," she says rhetorically. "That implies such black and white thinking. 'Women are more caring' -- does that mean that men aren't caring? That's offensive to me, and I'm not even male."
Although her study was limited to gender issues and depression, Spangler is concerned that gender stereotypes pervade other areas of academic study and popular culture.
"These are widespread theories," she explains. "Within every different camp or school of thought in psychology you'll find this notion that women deal more with dependency and men more with perfectionism."
Her co-author explains a kind of scientific inertia currently at work in the field of psychology. "Dr. Spangler and I find that many popular theories are simply wrong," says Burns. "We also find that people are often not very receptive to hearing this, including mental health professionals. That's unfortunate because science can only move forward when wrong theories are rejected so that new and more useful theories can emerge."
Spangler doesn't hesitate to point a finger at psychologists who put popularity above science.
"A lot of these ideas are generated by someone's opinion or a desire to sell books, and not from data," she says. "As a scientist I believe it takes systematic conclusive study, rather than anecdotal experiences, to make definitive statements about the nature of depression and about gender differences as a whole."
But if books advocating the notion of gender differences are so inaccurate, why do they sell like Danielle Steele novels?
"They hit home because parts of them relate to everybody -- that's how they are designed," Spangler says. "Just like astrologers design their work -- I can read a horoscope for each sign of the Zodiac and make each one apply to me somehow. If this effect of inherent gender differences is so strong, why don't we see it in the data?"
Despite fallacies in the popular literature, Spangler says the ideas are embraced because they allow people an excuse not to spend the time and emotional energy necessary to truly understand each other.
"People like to hold on to stereotypes because they make life efficient," she says. "If you can look at a man or woman and not have to understand them or decide anything about them, but instead just apply a kind of shorthand to them, then it makes life easier for you."
The end result of these theories seeping into the way regular people think can affect people more than they realize.
"These ways of thinking have created a stereotype that's inaccurate and can be damaging in its inaccuracy and impact on people's lives and in their relationships," Spangler says, emotion returning to her voice. "They tell people how their husband or wife should or shouldn't feel, how their son or daughter should or shouldn't feel. I truly believe it's damaging to people, and if I didn't I wouldn't care so much."
Spangler commends any attitude that emphasizes sensitivity to others' differences, but she cautions against grouping those differences together.
"This isn't about gender, it's about your personality," she says. "It's a great thing to realize that everyone doesn't think like you, but that it's not because they're a man or a woman, it's because they're human."
- Brigham Young University
This article was written by the originating institution and originally posted to Newswise.
